Local elections 2026: Farage tears apart Starmer’s red wall brick by brick as Labour heartlands decimated

IIt’s already been a nightmare election for Labor in the northern heartlands, with voters abandoning the party in favor of UK Reform.

With hundreds of Labor councilors losing their seats, Nigel Farage’s party has made gains across the country; This increased the pressure on the prime minister, who had promised not to walk away but could not ignore the reality of these consequences.

He acknowledged it had been a “difficult” night for Labor but added that “days like these do not weaken my resolve to deliver the change I have promised”.

The overnight results were felt sharply in the north; this was the cornerstone of the party’s electoral coalition, with Labor voters now shifting their allegiance to Reformation in Great Britain.

The first council to complete its counts on Friday was Halton in the Liverpool City Region, where Labor has always been in power. While it lost 15 members of parliament, Farage’s party gained 16 members, losing more than 50 percent of the vote in some areas.

Labor retained control of the local authority just outside the city because there were not enough seats for anyone else to gain a majority at this year’s election.

A similar situation was seen at Wigan in Greater Manchester; In a borough where Labor has been in power since its founding in 1974, Reform won 24 out of 25 seats. 22 of the 24 seats won by Reform were taken from the Labor Party.

As in Halton, the council remains in control for now. But next year, when another 25 seats are contested, Reform will have a path to power.

Tameside, which includes Angela Rayner’s constituency, also saw a loss of overall control from Labor, with Reform gaining 18 councilors and Labor losing 16.

Mr Farage told the BBC before the election: “I will say that the local government map will look very different across the North West after May 7.”

Following the first results on Friday, the Reform leader hailed a “historic shift in British politics”.

In the north-east, Reform won all 12 seats in Hartlepool, while Labor lost seven seats and left control of the council.

There are currently 15 Reform councilors in the borough, including 14 Labor members and seven independents. Negotiations will begin on who will run the local government.

Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, who watched his wife lose her council seat overnight, said: “It is clear to me that the prime minister should take this opportunity to set a timetable for his own departure and then allow for the widest possible selection of leadership that includes the full range of talents of our party.”

This is an unprecedented situation for Labour, but no surprise if you listen to voters in the north of England. Love for Sir Keir is not lost among them.

That was evident in what voters said in February, as the Gorton and Denton midterm elections approached. Independent They no longer felt represented by a party and left it to the Greens and Reform, with Labor coming third.

As expected in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham has been suggested by many as an alternative that would bring them back to the party. Voters believe the very popular mayor, dubbed the ‘King of the North’, understands them and where they come from.

When before these elections Independent The disdain for the incumbent party was palpable when he spoke to voters in St Helens, another Liverpool City Region council which is due to announce its results later today and will not need much movement towards Labor Reform to lose control.

“It’s not the Labor Party we had in St Helens,” voter Janet Wylde told me, in St Helens, where links to Labor run deep but now have Mr Farage’s eye on it.

Before the election, Liverpool City District Mayor Steve Rotheram said: Independent Labor could achieve more if it focused on local issues rather than the man in Downing Street.

“Once we get beyond those who don’t support the likes of Keir Starmer, when we get beyond that and explain the type of town hall Labor is proposing, we will have a much fairer hearing,” he said.

But it is clear that voters in Labour’s most loyal areas have rejected a party led by Sir Keir. And if the polls are correct, there will be more suffering in the north today.